In UNSC, Eight Abstain & Block AU-Requested Deferral of Kenya ICC, Bemoan Having to Vote: "Disrespecting Africa"?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 15 -- When the Security Council voted Friday on the African Union's resolution for the UN Security Council to defer the International Criminal Court's Kenya proceedings for a year, the expected happened.

  Eight countries abstained, thereby killing the resolution. 

  Afterward the abstainers said they much respect the African Union; several said they didn't think continuing the cases would represent any threat to international peace and security.

  But how, then, is the situation in Haiti a threat to international peace and security, as the Security Council still deems?

  France's Gerard Araud bemoaned the African calling a vote on a resolution when they knew it wouldn't pass. But France had not problem with that on Syria resolutions. 

  The mood earlier in the week on the draft was more jocular. On November 12 French Ambassador Araud bantered with ascribe who name-dropped about Iran, then disappeared. During most of the meeting, the stakeout consisted of media from South Africa and Benin, then Al Jazeera. Western wires and one "TV" belatedly showed up -- then tried to ask all the questions.

 An hour and a half, the spin that emerged that was "one member" inside had suggested not putting the draft resolution to a vote, to not "humiliate" the African Union ministers who came, offering instead "a paper" which would refer to the Assembly of State Parties meeting.

  But earlier one of the African sponsors of the draft said this was the last chance, they were going to put it to the vote later this week. They knew the vote count. So what could this offer, called condescending, change?

  Inner City Press on November 11 asked Kenya's Permanent Representative Macharia Kamau about the timing. Thursday or Friday, he replied. "It's sad," he told Inner City Press exclusively, "it's a very simple issue, the Security Council would lose nothing. They'd grant the request of forty nine [heads of state or] the whole of Africa, and be back here in twelve months." He said there might be headlines for one day after such a deferral, calling it "knee jerk."

He contrasted it, "if we'd come here asking for war, or to send a 'war lord' to The Hague, there'd be consensus."

Macharia Kamau paused and said, "The Security Council is not a destination for solutions." He said others would realize that too, whenever they had an issue before the Council.

 Watch this site.

   

After Kenya ICC Deferral Draft Circulated by Three African Countries on UN Security Council, Another Member Gives to BBC, Murky Power

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 3 -- On the African Union's draft UN Security Council resolution to defer the International Criminal Court's Kenya proceedings one year, Inner City Press midday on November 1 reported that it would be circulated later on Friday. 

   It was, past 7 pm on Friday, as Inner City Press tweeted and added to its first story: 17 preambular paragraphs and four operative paragraphs, sponsored by Morocco, Rwanda and Togo.

  Now on Sunday evening BBC in The Hague has published, on twitter, photographs of portions but not all of the resolution, as well as of a letter from Fergal Gaynor, counsel to victims in Kenya, urging UN Security Council members to vote against the resolution.

  Inner City Press checked with sponsors, who confirmed that the paragraphs selectively released are accurate, while telling Inner City Press they'll raise the leak by Western opponents of the draft at a meeting now scheduled for November 5 (and on which Inner City Press will report.)

  What is the position, for example, of the United States? Ambassador Samantha Power declined to comment as she left the closed door meeting between the African Union ministers and the Security Council on October 31.

  Inner City Press asked the US Mission for its position; later on October 31, Ambassador Power tweeted that the ICC's delay would allow consideration of Botswana proposed amendments by the Assembly of State Parties. 

   But that doesn't answer: what's the US' position on the African Union's request for the Security Council to grant a deferral under Article 16 of the Rome Statute of the ICC? Inner City Press has asked. Anonymous quotes from diplomats, from a venue which ran a vacuous profile of Power, are not enough. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: Draft Resolution for Kenya ICC Deferral to be Circulated Nov 1 by Morocco, Rwanda, Togo, ICP is Told

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 1 -- The day after the UN Security Council heard behind closed doors the African Union's argument for a one year deferral of the International Criminal Court's Kenya proceedings, a formal draft resolution for the deferral is to be circulated by the Council's three African members, Inner City Press has learned.

  Morocco, Rwanda and Togo are the Council's three African members, the latter two members of the African Union. But how will other countries vote?

  As Inner City Press reported yesterday, in the closed door meeting Russia and China said they supported the African position. Pakistan does as well.

  While US Ambassador Samantha Power declined comment as she left the meeting with the African Union on October 31, Inner City Press kept asking the US Mission for its position. 

  On the night of Halloween Samantha Power's twitter had this runic view: "Now that ICC postponed Kenyatta's trial, Assembly of State Parties can weigh in on Botswana’s proposed revision to ICC rules of procedure."

  Inner City Press posed / posted a follow-up: "OK. But what's @StateDept position on African Union's request now, for Article 16 deferral by #UNSC?" So far, no answer.

  On November 1, outside the Council's meeting on the Central African Republic, Inner City Press asked France's Gerard Araud about the International Criminal Court. He said, on camera, that this had been answered by Rwanda's Ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana, before you got here. Really? Video here.

Article 16 of the Rome Statute is only fifty six words long:

"No investigation or prosecution may be commenced or proceeded with under this Statute for a period of 12 months after the Security Council, in a resolution adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, has requested the Court to that effect; that request may be renewed by the Council under the same conditions."

 Because of the citation to Chapter VII, the argument made in the AU - Security Council closed door meeting on October 31 was that with Kenya fighting in Somalia, and the subject of the terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, subjecting its leaders to a trial in The Hague would be a threat to international peace and security or would amplify a threat to international peace and security, the key phase to trigger action under Chapter VII. For more, longer form analysis is here, on BeaconReader. Watch this site.

   

As ICC Defers Kenya to Feb 5, Ethiopia for AU Asks UNSC For Full Year, Tells Inner City Press: Resolution Soon

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 -- After the African Union met the UN Security Council asking for deferral under Article 16 of the International Criminal Court's Kenya cases, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom spoke on camera to the press.

  He said Kenya is "at war" and its leaders should not be distracted by these cases. The ICC's decision earlier in the day to defer the case against President Kenyatta to February 5 is not enough, he said. There should be a one year deferral, and that time should be used to find a "solution."

  While Kenya's minister ended up not speaking on camera, saying that Tedros Adhanom had spoken for them all, sources in the meeting told Inner City Press that she said when Kenya joined the ICC it didn't know there was a "hierarchy" in which a higher standard was applied to invoking Article 16 on deferrals.

  She told the Security Council members to look at their own Council press statement on the Westgate mall attack, which called it a threat to international peace and security.

  Inner City Press asked Tedros Adhanom what the timing would be, if a resolution would be put forward. Yes, he said. (Video soon. Here's an Inner City Press photo of the AU ministers the day before the meeting, here's one of their huddle afterward.)

As Inner City Press reported during the meeting, Russia and China spoke clearly in favor of the African position, while the US and France were called "unclear." US Ambassador Samantha Power left just before noon, and declined comment.

  Inner City Press ran to the day's UN noon briefing and asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky if Ban had any comment, on the ICC putting the case off to February 5. Nesirky said no, that the Secretariat does not get involved with the Court -- except to encourage cooperation.

  But Ban and members of this team (not including his Special Adviser on Africa Maged Abdelaziz) called African heads of state before their meeting in Addis. So what is Ban's position? Watch this site.

   

Kenya Asks UNSC for ICC Cases To Be Dropped, South Sudan's Kiir Slams Court, Sri Lanka Compared

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 -- It took Kenya two letters to get the meeting, but on a rainy Thursday afternoon in New York Kenyan Permanent Representative Kamau Macharia address the 15 members of the UN Security Council.

  He told them the International Criminal Court cases against Kenyan leaders including president Uhuru Kenyatta should be dropped, in their entirety. As several sources told Inner City Press during the closed door meeting, he did NOT ask for the one year Article 16 deferral.

  Afterward by the North Lawn building stairs, Kamau Macharia told Inner City Press he asked for "the whole thing" -- the dropping of the cases. Inner City Press asked him about moves to ask African Union members to tell the ICC to drop the cases, and South Sudan president Salva Kiir's statement condemning the cases and the ICC.

  Kamau Macharia said if a "beacon of democracy" like Kenya is being prosecuted, countries with graver problems would not want to join the ICC.

  Rwanda asked why, with all the bloody conflicts on the agenda of the Security Council, they spent Thursday afternoon speaking about Kenya. (One might compare, as Inner City Press does, the 40,000 civilians killed in Sri Lanka in 2009 with what happened in Kenya). 

  The recent Kenyan elections were called a referendum on the ICC. The "usual suspects" were said to have argued that the ICC is not political. More and more people don't believe that. But how will the ICC respond? Watch this site.

Footnote: just before the 3 pm start-time for the Security Council informal interactive meeting, Inner City Press was working at the table in front of the current Security Council chamber. (It is just such a table that the UN and its partners are trying to ban from the front of the renovated Security Council after May 31.)

  Kamau Macharia arrived and asked Inner City Press if the meeting wasn't in the chamber, or in the room next door. No, Inner City Press replied, like other unpublicized such meetings, it would be in the North Lawn building, Conference Room 7. 

  There, also, Inner City Press set up a table and spoke with attendees. No one was bothered. It works, but some in the UN and their partners want to ban it. The Free UN Coalition for Access is opposing it. Watch this site.

On ICC, Kenya Prepares a Second Letter to UNSC, Of Reuters' Lazy One-Member Spin

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 -- After Kenya wrote to the UN Security Council about the International Criminal Court cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, a length Council consultation took place on May 9.

Inner City Press covered it in detail, including the outcome: that Kenya will write a second letter to the Council to request to meet with the full Council.

Mid-day on May 10, Inner City Press asked the Security Council president for May, Kodjo Menan of Togo, for an update. He said that Kenya's Permanent Representative to the UN had indicate he would submit the second letter very shortly.

Among the issues that arose in Thursday's consultations was whether Kenya's Permanent Representative can meet and make his case to the full Council, or only to a working group.

  Rwanda, whose Ambassador Eugene Richard Gasana led or initiative the push on this, told Inner City Press on the record that it would be insulting to refer a member state to a working group. A number of Council members supported and support this position.

But it's worth noting that when Reuters "reported" on the issue,it had nothing about the issue of the second letter, or with whom Kenya's Permanent Representative would meet.

  Rather, Reuters quoted an unnamed "senior council diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity" that the granting of even a deferral of prosecution for a year would be "unlikely."

So this Western view is presented, as the only view, with nothing on what actually took place in the Council. It's not just that it's one- (Western) sided: it's also lazy and incomplete.

But this is the agency which was unwilling to provide a copy or summary of any policy on crediting other media for use of their exclusive reports, and which in fact unethically bases compensation on how many of a correspondent's stories are called "exclusives," accurately or as often happens, inaccurately.

This is how the UN and Security Council are being reported on. Watch this site.

Footnote: Since the campaign involving Reuters UN bureau chief and UNCA First Vice President Louis Charbonneau continues and continues to evolve, it's worth noting that while Reuters' Kenya "story" was bylined by Michelle Nichols, it was re-distributed by Charbonneau. They call it (false) Buzz...